franc.sydney Audience Challenged to Show Real Leadership in Opening Panel Session

The opening panel session at Sydney’s ‘franc’ conference boldly threw the responsibility for generating effective and long-lasting change in stormwater management back on to their audience.

The overarching concept of ‘franc’, which has been developed by Stormwater NSW with the support of a variety of partners, is to challenge the rationale of current practice and perception of urban stormwater and its management.

This inaugural ‘franc’ conference has attracted over 150 urban water professionals from across Australia.?Planners, engineers, educators, landscape architects, ecologists, economists, researchers and educators have gathered in Sydney for the two-day event.

The Opening Panel session featured industry leaders:?Tony Weber (Alluvium), Keysha Milenkovic (Blacktown City Council), Dr William Glamore (UNSW) and Dr Denise Hardesty (CSIRO).

The Panel, which was Chaired by Dr Martina Doblin, Director and CEO of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, was charged with discussing ‘What will it take to make urban stormwater truly blue/green?’

The wide ranging discussion dealt with matters like the lack of consistent and reliable funding at all levels (the NSW Govt’s Stormwater Service Charge has not been increased in nearly 10 years); the need for the sector to more effectively engage with their stakeholders (‘Stop telling people what to do - ask them what they are prepared to do – then they will be willing to get involved’); the need for more effective cross sectoral communication and cooperation and the urgent need to develop the capacity of the broad stormwater sector.?

All panelists also bemoaned a lack of a coordinated and focused approach to stormwater management while at the same time recognizing some of the truly ground breaking work that is happening in the stormwater space.

In the end however, the panelists unanimously agreed that strong, coordinated and informed leadership was urgently needed at all political, government and industry levels.

They concluded by challenging everyone at the franc.sydney Conference to play their part in developing and guiding that leadership – a challenge that hopefully everyone involved in franc 1 will be striving to meet, not just at the conference but in the months and years ahead.